Poll says Illinois is divided on gun issues

Illinois voters still have mixed opinions about gun rights, according to new data released Monday by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University.

Numbers from the poll, taken Feb. 12-25 and surveying 1,001 registered voters, show 52.3 percent of registered voters feel less safe since Illinois passed its concealed carry law last summer while 31.8 percent of respondents said they felt more safe.

Opinions varied with geography, as 64.5 percent of respondents from Chicago felt less safe while 54.6 percent of those in the Chicago suburbs felt less safe.

Downstate, those who feel more safe and those who feel less safe were statistically equal, with 41.9 percent and 40.5 percent, respectively.

The most dramatic shift in opinion came when respondents were asked whether they thought Illinois’ concealed carry law should include restrictions against carrying weapons into places like schools, college campuses, malls and movie theaters.

Last year, 71.3 percent of those surveyed said they believe there should be restrictions. According to the 2014 poll, 56.7 percent favor restrictions. Last year, 20.7 percent said there should be no restrictions, compared with 35.7 percent who feel the same this year.

The poll was first taken in 2013 in response to the massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut.

While a majority of Illinois voters still prefer controlling gun ownership to protecting the right to own guns, that margin is thinning, with 53 percent of respondents preferring control this year compared to 59.5 percent last year. Protecting the right to own guns was more important to 41.5 percent compared to 31.3 percent last year.

“Illinois is a blue state, and a metropolitan state, and it’s not surprising that a majority still places a priority on controlling gun ownership over protecting gun rights,” Charlie Leonard, a visiting professor at the institute and the supervisor of the poll, said in a statement.

According to the poll, more Illinois voters favor putting armed guards in schools and support protecting gun rights this year over last year.

More than half of those surveyed — 53.1 percent — said they supported “putting more armed guards or police in schools” compared with 46.3 percent in favor a year ago. Opposition to adding armed guards in schools was at 38.3 percent this year, down from 44.8 percent in 2013.

Support for protecting gun rights jumped more than 10 percentage points, with 41.5 percent saying it was more important than controlling gun ownership, while 31.3 percent said so last year.

David Yepsen, director of the institute, said in a release that the new poll “illustrates just how evenly divided voters in Illinois are over gun-related issues.”

“It’s little wonder policymakers have had such a difficult time trying to resolve these questions. In this latest survey, both sides (of the issue) can find support for their part of the cause,” he said.

Leonard said that shifts in opinion could be due to current events — or a lack of them.

As long as there are no newsworthy mishaps associated with concealed carry, I suspect opposition to the law will continue to soften,” he said.